Mount Clemens group home may stay closed

The owner of a Mount Clemens adult group home shut down by the state for claimed abuse says she may not dispute her license suspension.

The state Department of Human Resources recently suspended the license of Nancy Kalb for her West Breitmeyer Place home north of Harrington Street between Gratiot Avenue and Groesbeck Highway. The five or six residents were dispersed to other homes.

Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said his department is investigating a Sept. 23 criminal complaint by a client over the same allegations. He said he expects it to be completed in about three weeks.

Kalb, who owns and runs the home, told The Macomb Daily this week that she denies the claim she scalded a resident with hot water while bathing her.

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“There was no abuse,” she said. “I was giving her a shower. How can it be too hot? There’s a governor on the water heater.”

One of the residents reportedly told officials that she and other residents were being abused by two staffers.

Kalb questioned the validity of the claim but declined to elaborate.

“I don’t want to bash the residents or their families,” she said.

She said she didn’t think she would fight the suspension. She said she feels powerless in the matter and may quit the business she has operated for 24 years as she has struggled to earn a profit in recent years due to economic pressures. The two-year license was set to expire in June.

The home houses adults who are physical handicapped, “aged,” or have Alzheimer’s disease.

Kalb’s daughter, Angela Rhode, is also listed as the license holder. But Rhode, who operates a similar home three miles away in Clinton Township, said she is on her mother’s license in name only.

In 2011 and 2012, Kalb was cited for nine violations at her home by the DHS and fulfilled promises to take corrective action, according to state records. Nancy and Russell Kalb improperly moved the body of a deceased resident and failed to call 911 for 80 minutes in 2012. Violations in 2011 were for failing to immediately clean blood from a resident’s face, allowing 14 hours to pass without a meal, allowing a resident to possess medications in her room, failing to register residents, being one resident over-capacity, failing to report a resident being taken to a hospital twice and failing to provide a menu upon request. There was allegations of minor physical abuse and cursing at residents in 2011 but those claims were “not established,” records say.

About the Author

My beat is the courts of Macomb County and general assignment.
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